NorCal Garden Musings and Know-How

Month: May 2007

On Friday, I planted all my California poppies (which are late this year, so I hope the heat doesn’t kill them), some dianthus, iceplant, verbena, and some of the geraniums. I focused on the side of the main front flowerbed and the bed along the front walkway. In the big flowerbed, I also sprinkled some […]

Today, I planted some lily bulbs and a dozen or so Rudbeckias I grew from seed. The lilies are a little late getting in the ground, but I hope we still get some good blooms from them this summer. I bought five bulbs of each kind at Wal-Mart about a month ago. They are: Stargazer […]

I work a few blocks from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and I always enjoy taking a camera with me to work this time of year. All of these shots were taken on May 2nd around the Joseph Smith Building and the church office building. I saw a gardener there who told me that […]

These are Prairie Fire Crabapples in my front yard — two of the coolest trees I’ve ever had! I love their display in April and May. It seems like their bloom season was too short this year, and it might have been the dry weather we had and the fast rise in temperature last week. […]

I’m also growing some Japanese maples from seed, and this is my first attempt at doing it. These are from seeds off my red Japanese maple in front of my house. I had to put them in the fridge for a few months to “stratify” and then plant them. I have nine of these babies […]

I now have about 250 flower seedlings growing, with most of them hardened off outside (although I brought them back in the basement Wednesday night because of the cold storms this weekend). Most of what I have here are: Dianthus deltoides ‘Brilliancy’ — a relative of carnations with purple flowers Delosperma cooperi (cold-hardy iceplant with […]

Here are a few more photos from the tulips in my front flowerbed. My girls really like those ones that look like jesters’ hats. I hope these all come back well next year; I should also add more to the bed this fall. These photos were taken one week ago, and they’ve started to decline […]